Leap Of Faith
This ‘92 film altogether evokes laughter, exposes a lifestyle, elicits sympathy, and simply disturbs. I’m not sure why this movie disturbed me, but the idea of pretending to speak in tongues, the mock faith-healing service and the “divine discernment” tricks of Jonas Nightengale and his hard-working crew are all probably to blame. While a biting commentary on 80s televangelism is no doubt warranted, the exaggerated lampooning of charismatic worship seems to needlessly poke and provoke a little too much. Watching this really tests the mettle of the slogan, “If you can’t laugh at yourself...”
Steve Martin does a nice job of playing the caring leader of a travelling band of good-time characters (including bus driving Meat Loaf and chief technician Debra Winger) who pull into Rustwater, Kansas – the self-professed “Corn Relish Capitol,” where they meet up and square off with the skeptical sheriff Will Braveman (Liam Neeson). Once the tent stakes go down and the pa and house lights fire up, it’s interesting to see the money-making machinery go into action, hawking religious nick-nacks and t-shirts. It was hard not to notice the application of the topic to this issue’s cover story. Especially with the line, "Gee, I wish I could, ma'am, because I know how Jesus loves to rock," which is delivered with the most biting of sarcasm in one of Jonas' worse moods. (Plus I noticed that the Director of Photography was listed as Matthew F. Leonetti. Could it be the same guy that put out the HM Stage DVD? Nah.)
If we can’t face the questions that this flick raises, then something is terribly wrong and rotten around here. Kudos to Paramount for re-releasing this title on DVD, but too bad they couldn’t see to add a single extra. [Paramount / Doug Van Pelt]
Ratings:
Obscenities: 14
Graphic Violence: 00
Nude Scenes: 00
% Spiritual Relevancy: 100
This DVD review was printed in ISSUE 104 of HM Magazine. To buy this issue, go to our online store and click on Back Issues.
DVD rating key:
Obscenities (fka: BL (Blue Language)) # of “blue” / cuss words.
Ideal rating = 0
Graphic Violence (fka: BG (Blood ‘n’ Guts)) # of scenes with graphic violence.
Acceptable rating = <50
SC (Spiritual Conversations) An arbitrary rating based on the ease of starting a conversation on spiritual things.
Ideal rating = 50+
Nude Scenes (fka: NP (Naked People)) # of nude scenes.
Ideal: 0 (A rating of less than 1 signifies questionable scenes)
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